Best tv shows like The Casual Vacancy
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The Casual Vacancy centres on Pagford, a seemingly idyllic English village with a cobbled market square and ancient abbey. Behind the pretty façade however, is a town at war: rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils. Pagford is not what it first seems.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, light, feel good
Best tv shows and movies like The Casual Vacancy (2015):
Similar in 77%
Minder (2009)
Plot Summary:
Archie Daley's a bit of a rogue, always up for some dodgy dealings in the hope of making a nice little earner, but sometimes it can cause him to lose his moral compass, which is where Jamie usually steps in to put him right.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 207
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, light, feel good
Similar in 75%
Fat Friends (2000)
Plot Summary:
Fat Friends was an ITV drama, following a group of overweight people, their laughter and pain and addresses the absurdities of dieting in our modern age. The drama looks at people and how they relate to one another and use body weight as an excuse for all sorts of failings in their relationships, or not living their lives to the full. Four of the cast, Ruth Jones, James Corden, Sheridan Smith and Alison Steadman, went on to appear in Gavin & Stacey.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 317
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 48 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, sentimental, humorous, hilarious, sincere, uplifting, clever, emotional, realistic
Similar in 77%
Framed (2009)
Plot Summary:
The National Gallery in London has flooded, and senior curator Quentin Lester has a dramatic solution. He proposes that the entire collection of priceless paintings should be removed from London and stored in an abandoned slate mine inside a Welsh mountain, as they were during the Second World War. Soon after Quentin is settled in North Wales admittedly more at home in a cave among his paintings than he is with other people he unwittingly sets in motion a series of events that wake up this sleepy, charming town. After mistaking local boy Dylan Hughes for an art history genius, Quentin finds himself in the middle of mayhem.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 357
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, semi serious, captivating, feel good, humorous
Similar in 75%
Married Single Other (2010)
Plot Summary:
Married Single Other is a British television drama created and written by Peter Souter. The series is based on the lives of group of people who are either married, single or "other", other being defined as in a relationship. It began airing on Monday 22 February 2010 on ITV and UTV. The drama series was later screened in Scotland on STV from February 2012. The series was filmed on location in various areas of Leeds, while Left Bank Pictures television studios annexed to The Leeds Studios were used for interior shooting.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 414
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, captivating, sincere, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 79%
Madame Bovary (1975)
Plot Summary:
Would you risk everything to achieve your dreams? For beautiful young Emma Bovary, a life of passion and excitement is worth any price. Like a moth drawn to flame, she is entranced by the exotic worlds of romance and adventure found in her favorite novels. Experience her story of illicit passion, ultimate betrayal and heartbreaking tragedy in Gustave Flaubert’s classic Madame Bovary.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 220 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 87%
All the Small Things (2009)
Plot Summary:
Uplifting drama series from the writer of Cutting It about family and community, played out with rousing choruses, joyous harmonies and booming basslines.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
Everyone's Going to Die (2013)
Plot Summary:
Melanie's life in a seaside town is going nowhere until she meets Ray, back in town with a shady job to do. A moment's escape becomes a chance to save themselves, and each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 325
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, atmospheric, contemplative, emotional, humorous, talky, semi serious
Similar in 80%
All Creatures Great and Small (1978)
Plot Summary:
All Creatures Great and Small is a British television series, based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot. Ninety episodes were aired over two three-year runs. The first run was based directly on Herriot's books; the second was filmed with original scripts.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, sentimental, humorous, semi serious, feel good, atmospheric, talky, period drama
Similar in 78%
Footballers' Wives: Extra Time (2005)
Plot Summary:
Footballers' Wives: Extra Time is a British drama programme. A spin-off of Footballers' Wives, the programme aired on ITV2 for two series. Footballers' Wives: Extra Time aired in the US on BBC America under the title Footballers' Wives: Overtime.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: humorous, emotional, realistic, semi serious, sexy, soap opera
Similar in 77%
Dahoam is Dahoam (2007)
Plot Summary:
Dahoam is Dahoam is a German television series. The soap opera concerns the lives of the residents of the fictitious village of Lansing in Upper Bavaria. The characters speak the Bavarian dialect.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 106
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: emotional, light, atmospheric, captivating, sentimental, serious, realistic, soap opera, spoof, parody
Similar in 78%
Canterbury Tales (2003)
Plot Summary:
Adaptations of Chaucer's Tales to a modern setting.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 398
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 52 min
Plot tags: anthology, captivating, period drama
Similar in 89%
Always Greener (2001)
Plot Summary:
Every city-dweller daydreams about dropping out of the rat-race and moving to the country. Every country-dweller wonders what it might be like to try their luck in the 'Big Smoke'. Always Greener is the story of two families who actually dare to give it a go.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 324
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: touching, semi serious, humorous, realistic
Similar in 90%
Truckers (2013)
Plot Summary:
Funny, moving and at times painful - Truckers tells stories of real life, ordinary people pushed to extremes. In each episode, one character undertakes a journey and we are along for the ride. In an age when technology would make us seem ever more connected, the series uses the truck driver, alone in his cab, as a way to explore how isolated we can become within modern society and the importance of real human connection. These are powerful, moving stories, but the tone is always joyous and each story is one of redemption.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 86%
Back (2017)
Plot Summary:
Estranged foster-brothers Stephen and Andrew vie to take over the family business following the death of their father.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags: humorous, entertaining, light, sitcom, funny, controversial
Similar in 81%
Clouds of Witness (1972)
Plot Summary:
Lord Peter's brother, the Duke of Denver is accused of murdering their sister Mary's fiancé. It's up to Lord Peter and his faithful man Bunter to untangle all the clues and the contradicting testimony of a cloud of witnesses to save Denver.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 364
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: talky, detective, mind bending, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, witty, stylized
Similar in 82%
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978)
Plot Summary:
In a drunken and disheartened state, Michael Henchard sells his wife at a fair. When he becomes sober again he realises what he has done, and though unable to find his wife and child, changes his ways. He becomes the Mayor of the town. Nearly twenty years later his past comes back to haunt him.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 350 min
Plot tags: spiritual, tense, atmospheric, clever, serious, emotional, realistic, talky, period drama
Similar in 79%
Martin Chuzzlewit (1994)
Plot Summary:
Martin Chuzzlewit is an old man with a large fortune and an even larger set of family and friends. A portrait of greed and selfishness, this magnificent adaptation of Dickens' comic masterpiece features an all-star cast.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 938
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 385 min
Plot tags: costume drama, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 76%
Flambards (1979)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1900s in England, young Christina is orphaned and goes to live with her Uncle Russell, who owns the country estate of Flambards, and has two sons. Mark, the elder, is a wastrel, a roue and, like his father, loves to hunt. The younger son, William, lives to fly aeroplanes. Christina finds herself struggling with the ideas of classism as she falls in love with country life, the hunt, and one of her cousins. But after their impulsive marriage, when her husband is called away by the First World War, Christina must keep Flambards afloat by herself.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 477
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 780 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, period drama
Similar in 88%
A Dance to the Music of Time (1997)
Plot Summary:
Anthony Powell's 12 volume novel sequence "A Dance to the Music of Time" has been dramatised for television.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 507
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 416 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 80%
Vanity Fair (1967)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel. The first colour production from the BBC.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: costume drama, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period piece, period drama
Similar in 80%
North Square (2000)
Plot Summary:
North Square is an award-winning British television drama series written by Peter Moffat and broadcast by Channel 4 at the end of 2000. Starring an ensemble cast, including Phil Davis, Rupert Penry-Jones, Helen McCrory and Kevin McKidd, the programme is set around the practice of a Leeds Legal Chambers. The series was filmed in and around the real life Park Square, Leeds. This is the area near the city where the majority of legal firms are concentrated. Despite gaining considerable critical acclaim the show failed to garner a substantial audience resulting in only the one series of ten episodes being produced. In Australia the series was broadcast in 2001 on ABC and repeated in 2004 after popular and critical acclaim. The full series was released on DVD for the first time by Acorn Media UK on 5 March 2012.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 310
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, clever, realistic, suspenseful, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 88%
Sense and Sensibility (1971)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of the Jane Austen novel.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 178 min
Plot tags: historical drama, sincere, touching, feel good, realistic, witty, semi serious, period drama
Similar in 87%
Behaving Badly (1989)
Plot Summary:
Behaving Badly is a 1989 British television serial directed by David Tucker. The teleplay by Catherine Heath and Moira Williams is based on Heath's novel of the same name. It was initially broadcast by Channel 4. The series was released on DVD in 2005. The plot focuses on Bridget Mayor, a middle-aged housewife and part-time teacher who is forced to re-evaluate her life when her husband of twenty years abandons her for a younger woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, dark comedy
Similar in 85%
Ballykissangel (1996)
Plot Summary:
Ballykissangel is a BBC television drama set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural community. It ran for six series, which were first broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2001.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 84%
Hope Springs (2009)
Plot Summary:
Ellie finds herself in hiding in a remote Scottish village called Hope Springs along with fellow ex-cons Hannah, Josie and Shoo after plans to start a new life in Barbados – courtesy of £3m stolen from her gangster husband – go awry. All the girls have to do is keep their heads down, assume new identities and plan an escape to their Barbados idyll... little do they know that Hope Springs is going to change their lives forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, captivating
Similar in 76%
Cider with Rosie (2015)
Plot Summary:
A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in the Cotswolds during and immediately after the First World War.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, sentimental, touching, semi autobiographical
Similar in 77%
Home Fires (2015)
Plot Summary:
The story of a group of inspirational women in a rural Cheshire community with the shadow of World War II casting a dark cloud over their lives. As the conflict takes hold and separates the women from their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, the characters find themselves under increasing and extraordinary pressures in a rapidly fragmenting world. By banding together as the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, they help maintain the nation’s fabric in its darkest hour, and discover inner resources that will change their lives forever.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, serious, psychological, historical drama, touching, period piece, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 75%
The Final Cut (1995)
Plot Summary:
Approaching his 65th birthday, Prime Minister Frances Urquhart begins to see the end of his career. Not that he has the intention of resigning anytime soon. He does however hope to establish a legacy, one for the history books and one to provide his pension. Urquhart, the master manipulator, may be losing his touch however. His Foreign Secretary, Tom Makepeace, not only resigns but crosses the floor to sit in the opposition benches in order to attack the government. As his grip on power begins to wane, Urquhart goes to ever greater lengths to retain his authority.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 206 min
Plot tags: political thriller, political, clever, serious, realistic, witty, cynical, biting, suspense
Similar in 76%
South Riding (2011)
Plot Summary:
Andrew Davies sparkling adaption of Winifred Holtby's acclaimed novel. Insightful, warm and full of memorable characters, South Riding tells a fraught love story and paints a panaromic portrait of a Yorkshire community in the long aftermath of the First World War.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: touching, captivating, emotional, realistic, historical drama, period piece, costume drama, serious, stylized, period drama
Similar in 87%
Sense and Sensibility (1981)
Plot Summary:
Two sisters of opposing temperaments find love and some heartbreak in Jane Austen's 18th century classic.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 996
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 174 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, touching, feel good, emotional, realistic, witty, stylized, semi serious, period drama